Book Review: La Dolce Vegan

Book Review provided by: Dragonfly	Exclusive VP Book Review

	La Dolce Vegan! Vegan Livin' Made Easy By Sarah Kramer 240 pages

La Dolce Vegan! Vegan Livin' Made Easy
By Sarah Kramer
Co-Author of “How it All Vegan!” and “The Garden of Vegan”

“Love it. Hug it. Get it dirty.” This is Sarah Kramer's order. And that's what I've been doing! I had high expectations of this book and being a fan of the first two books she co-wrote with Tanya Barnard (who has taken up a career in nursing, leaving Sarah solo), I was excited to get started.

Sarah's goals for this book were to keep the recipes simple and keep the portions smaller. Most of the recipes in this book take 30 minutes or less to prepare and most make 2 large or 4 small servings. There are a few recipes in the book that take more than 30 minutes to prepare and they are marked with a little clock beside them so you can see in a flash that they take more time. The last section of the book is all about DIY and creating treasures out of objects you might otherwise throw out. I, personally, could do without this section of the book, although I suppose there are some folks out there who might enjoy its inclusion.

She starts off the book with her introduction and advice on being vegan and how to handle the different situations we encounter as our veganism is challenged. This is followed by Kitchen Wisdom, a section consisting of helpful kitchen tricks to make cooking that much easier. Throughout the book you'll find letters she's included from readers and their own tried-and-true recipes, while throwing in her sense of humor and her own [very] unique sense of style to keep the book fun.

So what recipes did I try out? Lots! Take a look . . . . .

Breakfasts

Banana Pecan Pancakes page 39
I made these for myself because the rest of the family are not banana fans. Neither am I, but I do like banana-nut bread and this is what this recipe reminded me of. I did enjoy the extra large pancake, dusted with a little powdered sugar. I felt like I was eating dessert instead of breakfast.

Cinnamon-Walnut Coffee Cake page 41
Yummy, easy, fast to throw together. I subbed applesauce for the oil. The whole family enjoyed it and requested I make it again.

Cranberry Almond Pecan Granola page 48
I like a good granola and I liked this recipe, although I do prefer my own granola recipe to this one. This recipe called for coconut, and being a hater of all things coconutty, I left it out. Wise decision. Coconut would've ruined this recipe.
Baked Aporridgy page 49
This was yummy, but I do happen to love oats prepared in the oven, so of course I was going to like this recipe. The smell of the cinnamon and spices wafting from the kitchen always make me happy.

Appies & Snacks

Roasted Red Pepper Hummus page 62
Oh man! This dip made me a very happy girl, one who kept saying, “Mmmmm” with every single taste. Tangy from the vinegars, pungent from the garlic and a nice, sweet bell peppery-ness from the roasted red bell peppers. I used white beans instead of chick peas because that's what I had in the pantry.
Soups

Chunky Corn Chowder page 120
This was good, but it didn't “wow” me. I'll probably make it again. It is nice to have more soup recipes to add to our wintertime menu.

Cindy O's “Chicken” & Rice Soup for the Soul page 121
Another good soup, but not outstanding. One problem I did have with the recipe was the rice. It called for uncooked rice and to allow 15 minutes to cook up in the soup. It took a little more than 30 minutes to cook the rice in the soup. Perhaps it's because I used brown rice instead of white. Even so, I think it would be best to add cooked rice to the soup instead of uncooked rice.

Entrèes

Spaghetti & Tofu Balls page 129
This is a recipe that takes a little longer than 30 minutes. It took me about 45 minutes to make. Really not bad timing. I made this recipe strictly for the Tofu Balls and I wasn't disappointed. They were really good! Of course, I asked my very picky 11-year-old daughter to try one out and she was turned off the word “tofu”. No matter, she doesn't have a clue what she missed out on. Excellent flavor and nice texture. The recipe says that they freeze well. I'll be making some extras to freeze and have on hand for a super speedy meal another time.
I made the pasta sauce just for the sake of review. It tasted good and was quick to make, but I'll likely use my favorite jarred sauce or my own frozen marinara when in a pinch the next time around.

Mock Beef & Rice Noodle Toss page 135
This was a huge hit with me and my husband. I've made it a few times now, much to my daughter's dismay and my husband's overwhelming delight. This is a super-quick recipe to throw together, making it one of my favorites to make when I come home late from work. I used my favorite bottled teriyaki marinade, which made the recipe move along that much faster.

Wendy's Lentil and Brown Rice Casserole page 140
This is another one of those recipes that takes longer than 30 minutes, however most of the time is hands-free cooking time. Throw all the ingredients into a casserole dish, stir it up and bake it for an hour and a half. The recipe says it makes 2 large or 4 small servings, but it made much more than that. I had enough leftovers to use in burritos the following night.

Baked Chili with Cornbread Biscuit Topping page 173
I love the concept of baking my cornbread on top of my chili. This was the first recipe I made out of this cookbook and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The best part: I had plenty of leftovers for lunch!

Desserts

Quick “Anything Goes” Ice Cream page 210
Throw frozen fruit into the food processor, add a couple of tablespoons of maple syrup and a non-dairy milk of your choice, buzz it all up and you have a dessert that everyone will love, including my picky kid. I used strawberries and rice milk, but you can use any fruit you like. The recipe isn't rocket science, but I'm really surprised I never thought to do this on my own.

Espresso Cake page 247
I made this mainly because I had espresso leftover from that morning. I frosted it with “Butter Cream” Frosting. Good, but not a particularly spectacular cake.

“Butter Cream” Frosting page 261
This has to be refrigerated for a minimum of 2 hours before you can frost anything with it. I waited the 2 hour minimum and was disappointed with the end result. It seemed to separate as I attempted to use it and it became runny and did not frost the cake nicely. The taste was good, but the appearance was less than desirable. Not a frosting recipe I plan on making ever again.

Edit 01/31/2006: I have tried this recipe again, this time using an electric hand held mixer and the results were fantastic. The mixer is needed to whip air into the frosting, to make it nice and fluffy and light, the way the end result was intended to be. The food processor just can't do that. If you're going to make this frosting, an electric mixer is a must.

Faux Fare

Basic Instant Gluten pages 284-288

Faux Sausage
Faux Chicken
Faux Beef

By far my favorite seitan recipes now. I've made them a countless number of times so far. They are flavorful and quite simple and fast to make.

Faux Sour Cream page 293
Probably the best homemade faux sour cream recipe I've made. It has a nice tangy flavor. You can use this in the Cinnamon Walnut Coffee Cake.

I do have one gripe about the book. There are a few recipes repeated in the book. For example, the Cinnamon Walnut Coffee Cake is printed in the Breakfasts section on page 41 and in the Desserts section on page 253. The Tofu Balls is in both the Entrèes section and in Odds & Sods. This is a very minor complaint, but it does annoy me to see recipes repeated throughout a cookbook.

While many of the recipes I tried weren't spectacular, all of the recipes were good and simple to make (with the exception of the “Butter Cream” Frosting). This book is really all about vegan living made easy, as the title states. The recipes in this book are for real people, like you and me, who have busy lives and not enough time to do more than bang a few pots together and chow. Even those “fancier” more time-consuming recipes in the book are still easy to throw together. The simplicity of the book is it's greatest appeal. None of the recipes call for any weird ingredients. You'll have most everything in your pantry for every recipe. A novice cook can pick up this book, open it up and fix any recipe in it. It's the kind of cookbook that won't scare off a new vegan and will, most likely, inspire them to cook even more.

I suppose if you aren't fans of the first two books, you likely won't be a fan of this one. But I loved it. You won't find any pictures of the prepared recipes, but you'll see a lot of Sarah Kramer's smiling face and her bubbly personality. Perhaps I'm biased because I liked the previous books Sarah Kramer co-wrote, but I really think that this book deserves all 4 forks. This is a really fun book.

I still have many more recipes to try, like the Festive Stuffed Butternut Squash, the Tofu Roast, the Maple Flax Squares, and Wolffie's Tofu Whipped “Cream” to go with Wolffie's Pumpkin Pie . . . . . ahhhh, the sweet vegan!

VegPeople Rating:

4 forks out of 4

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